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At site of horror, a bond of pride (VIDEO)

On visit to Nazi death camp, families share stories of one who saved, one who survived

By Lyle Moran, lmoran@lowellsun.com

Updated:
07/05/2013 10:17:08 AM EDT

LOWELL -- Mike and Mary Ann Durkin saw the remnants of the gas chambers and crematoriums the Nazis set up at the Auschwitz concentration camp complex in Poland to kill and dispose of prisoners.

The Lowellians went into rooms displaying the suitcases Jews and others taken to the camp brought with them because they did not know many of their lives would end there.

They also visited the lake at Auschwitz-Birkenau, a camp built because the original Auschwitz camp was not big enough, where the ashes of the hundreds of thousands the Nazis killed during WWII were dumped.

The images from the day were so harrowing they would wake Mary Ann up at night in the days following the Durkins' mid-June tour.

But the Durkins also saw a young boy on their tour taking in the hard-to-stomach stops. The boy stood out because he kept asking questions of the tour guide.

Mary Ann, 61, asked the father of the boy what brought their family to Auschwitz.

The man, whose family was from Texas, said they came because his wife's father was Polish and had been forced to work at Dachau concentration camp in Germany.

His father-in-law was Polish and was just 16 when he arrived at the camp, which was the first one opened in Germany and the model for others the Nazis set up.

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The father of the young boy also said his father-in-law never talked about his job at Dachau, but the family heard from other family members that like other young men, his job was taking dead bodies out of the gas chambers to the crematoriums.

Those on the Auschwitz tour learned that once the young men had held their jobs for a short while and knew how the concentration camps worked, they were killed by the Nazis. It was part of their efforts to prevent information about what went on at the camps from the outside world.

Upon escaping death because the Americans liberated the camp in 1945, the man's father-in-law made his way to the U.S. and refused to return to Poland.

When the man finished speaking, Mike Durkin told him that his father was at Dachau, too.

A day he will never forget

Brendan Durkin, Mike's father, has only started talking about his service in the U.S. Army during WWII in recent years.

The 87-year-old says he is hesitant to share because he says he does not want to talk about killing people.

But he does remember April 29, 1945 -- the day he and other American troops liberated Dachau.

Brendan Durkin was only 19 at the time and was back in action for the third time during the war after twice battling back from injuries and receiving a Purple Heart. He was one of four Durkin brothers to serve in the war at the same time.

When the Americans reached Dachau, Brendan Durkin was on the first American half-track into the camp.

At the final roll call days earlier, more than 30,000 prisoners were counted at the camp.

But by the time Americans arrived, thousands of prisoners were gone, taken on a death march south by the Nazis three days before. The remaining prisoners Durkin saw were in bed and looked weak.

"They were piled six high on a thin, thin mattress with just hay on it," said Brendan. "It was awful."

After the Americans had completed their work, Durkin was on the last half-track out.

"I always remember as we were going out, there was a German soldier and a little, short prisoner, and the little short guy was kicking the German soldier in the butt," Durkin said.

Another father, a prisoner

Mike Durkin shared those details from his father's time at Dachau with the man from Texas.

The man then asked the Durkins to share the story about Mike's father with his wife, since it was her father who was rescued from Dachau.

The Durkins told Brendan's story, including the detail about the German soldier getting kicked in the butt.

"She was happy to hear that somebody had extracted some measure of retribution for the maltreatment," said Mike, 62.

Her father had died last year at the age of 83, the woman said.

Mike Durkin shared that his father was still alive.

Tears filled the eyes of the woman.

She asked Mike if he could thank his father on behalf of her father for coming to Dachau and saving her father.

Mike, who called the moment "chilling," said his thoughts immediately went to the woman's young son.

"But for the intervention of the Americans liberating Dachau, (her father) would have been dead and these people would have never had an opportunity to be born," Mike Durkin said. "That 10-year-old would never had an opportunity to learn about his grandfather because he would not have been around."

Mary Ann Durkin said she was also moved by the woman's request.

"Once you went through the whole thing, experienced the camp, heard what they did, then to have her come up to Mike and say thank him, thank him for freeing Dachau, thank your dad for my dad, it added so much more emotion to the entire thing," Mary Ann said.

A new appreciation

When the Durkins got home, they passed along the words of thanks to Brendan from the woman whose father he and other Americans rescued from likely death.

Brendan Durkin said he was surprised to hear about the interaction his son and daughter-in-law had at Auschwitz, but appreciative.

"I was real thrilled about that," he said. "I'm just glad we were able to help people out."

But Brendan Durkin, while surrounded recently by members of four generations of Durkins, said "there was no heroism" in what he and his fellow soldiers did at Dachau.

His family members disagree. They say the Durkins' interaction with the family from Texas shows how big an impact the actions of Americans at Dachau had.

"This was not a giant battle, but if the American soldiers did not go in and take that camp, those people would have been killed, very, very shortly," said Mick Durkin, 37, Brendan's grandson. "So what a tremendous accolade that this family can look someone back in the eye and say my descendant was saved because of your descendant."

Mike Durkin said the impromptu meeting with the family from Texas helped him gain a new appreciation for the impact all U.S. soldiers have had on lives of those in other countries.

"I don't think you can limit it to WWII," Mike said. "I think you have to go to Vietnam, you have to go to Korea, you have to go Afghanistan, Iraq, any place any one has ever been. These guys not only defended us, but they made the lives of the people in whose countries they fought better."

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